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| Nintendo’s Splatoon Raiders brings Deep Cut into a treasure-hunting adventure on Nintendo Switch 2. |
By Jon Scarr
The Splatoon Raiders Direct and Nintendo Treehouse: Live gave us an extended look at Nintendo’s new Splatoon spinoff. Splatoon Raiders launches exclusively for Nintendo Switch 2 on July 23, and the footage finally showed how its treasure raids actually work. The game is not just sending you out to fight Salmonids. It is tying raids to tanks, gadgets, relic powers, co-op and the upgrades you bring back to the hideout ship.
I’m glad Nintendo used this much airtime walking through the game, because this doesn’t look like Nintendo just took a normal Splatoon story mode and swapped Deep Cut into the lead role. Splatoon Raiders is a single-player-focused action-shooter where you play as a mechanic hired by Shiver, Frye and Big Man, then head into the Spirhalite Islands after an emergency landing pulls the group into a larger treasure hunt.
Once Nintendo explained how raids work, Splatoon Raiders became much easier to understand. It’s still an ink-based action-shooter, but now I can see the game I’m actually going to be playing. I leave the hideout ship, fight through Salmonids, grab treasure, return with new weapons and materials, upgrade my loadout and head back out better prepared.
Splatoon Raiders Turns Treasure Into Repeatable Raids
The main treasure hunt starts with Deep Cut chasing riches across the Spirhalite Islands. A member of Deep Cut pilots the Exploration Bot, which detects buried treasure and uses Power Eggs to dig it up. The problem is that Salmonids gather around treasure and attack once you get too close.
Every trip has a simple hook, and it’s the kind that usually gets me. Get in, fight through the Salmonids, grab treasure and come back with something that makes the next run easier. You leave the hideout ship, choose a destination on the treasure map and push into the islands with a clear goal. One raid might have you collecting Power Eggs. Another might send you mining Spirhalite crystals, opening treasure or digging deeper into ruins.
The cracked crystal stage made that raid flow easier to picture. The team had to collect enough Power Eggs to crack a giant crystal, with a larger Power Egg total increasing the final Spirhalite reward. That created a real decision near the end of the raid. Do you cash out safely, or stay longer with fewer shared attempts left and try to increase the payout?
Failure also looks less punishing than I expected. If a raid goes badly, you still keep experience points, weapons, items, collectibles and tank progress. That works here because the game clearly wants you to experiment. A failed raid can still leave you with parts, materials or enough progress to make the next attempt easier.
Salmonids Bring Boss Fights And Showstopper Fuel
Salmonids are the main threat across the Spirhalite Islands, and Nintendo gave them more variety than a basic enemy group. Lesser Salmonids attack in numbers, with types carrying spoons, frying pans and tongs. Some bounce on springs, and others rush in before exploding.
Boss Salmonids are more specific. Scrapper attacks from the front with heavy protection, so the trick is to stun it with ink, move behind it and attack from the open side. Salty Tongue can take a lot of damage and hit hard. Salivator flies through the air and creates whirlwinds. Smoker protects other Salmonids with fumes.
Mega Power Eggs make those boss fights more important. Boss Salmonids drop Mega Power Eggs, and those Power Eggs fuel the Exploration Bot when it digs treasure. Power Eggs also fill a Showstopper meter, which brings Deep Cut’s Bot Buddy into fights more directly.
The stronger Salmonids are marked by salt. Minced Scrapper brings heavy armour and a roller attack. Thick Cut Salty Tongue fires a massive beam. Big Stack Stinger targets you with three lasers. Salt-covered enemies appear as stronger versions in the field, which is a nice visual cue when a fight is about to get rough.
Flyfish also return, but they work differently here compared with previous Splatoon games. In Splatoon Raiders, Flyfish can be attacked directly instead of only dealing with them through bombs in their launchers. That sounds small at first, but for anyone who remembers Flyfish ending previous Splatoon co-op battles, that change should be noticeable fast.
Tanks Gadgets And Relics Define Each Loadout
The tanks are where Splatoon Raiders really started to win me over. There are three tank types: Speed Tank, Power Tank and Tactical Tank. Each tank has access to its own gadgets, and each tank points you toward a different style of play.
Speed Tank favours movement. Blast Boot lets you aim a jump before stomping down on enemies or escaping danger. Dash Bomb launches you with an explosion. Booyarang flies forward, spins in front of you and returns.
Power Tank is for pushing into groups and breaking tougher enemies. Splatchet swings in a wide arc and cuts through shields. Splatellites spin around you, attack enemies and coat the ground with ink. Spinwheel sprays ink as you move and can lock on to Boss Salmonids.
Tactical Tank is more about placement and control. Shot Pot acts like an automatic turret. Bombloons hang in the air, link together and explode in ink when shot. Tether Wail connects to your tank with a laser that damages Salmonids touching the beam.
Gadget customization also looks like something I could tinker with for a while between raids. Gadget parts change how your tools behave instead of just raising a number. A Shot Pot can hit harder or fire from farther away, while Bombloons can be tuned for bigger explosions, stronger knockback or better chain damage.
Relics add another loadout piece. Salmonid Relics slot into your collection and can be equipped for extra powers. One might make you faster. Another can help with Mega Power Egg pickup or recovery. Some work with every tank, while others are tied to specific tank types. Once relics get added to tank and gadget choices, Splatoon Raiders looks like it has more build crafting than I expected from a Splatoon spinoff.
Deep Cut Has A Real Role Between Raids
Deep Cut has a bigger role than just sending the mechanic out for treasure. Each member connects to progression on the hideout ship, and that base area looks like the place where a lot of your planning happens between raids.
Shiver helps craft new gadgets in the Gadget Workshop. Frye works in the Weapon Stash, where weapons can be upgraded or turned into materials. Big Man tracks relics, Salmonid research, gadget information and weapons.
Big Man’s catalog could become a useful stop between raids if you like learning enemy patterns. Salmonid research includes field notes, battle tips and fun facts, with some information unlocking after you defeat more of a specific Salmonid type. That turns Big Man’s catalog into something worth checking between raids.
The Mechanic’s Shack is where tank upgrades happen. Skill points can improve HP, weapon damage, gadget damage and gadget part slots. Tanks also improve as you use them, and tanks can eventually equip three gadgets instead of two.
Loadout presets make sense here. If you create a favourite tank, weapon, gadget and relic combination, you can save it and return to it later instead of rebuilding everything by hand.
Co-op Raids Scale Around The Group
Splatoon Raiders is still described as a single-player-focused adventure, but co-op has more structure than a simple extra mode. Up to four people can play together online or through local wireless, and the game runs co-op setup from the hideout ship.
Co-op starts at a radio, where you can choose online or local play, create a room and set an optional passcode. The leader chooses the map, but everyone still has time to adjust weapons, tanks and loadouts before heading out. Each person’s loadout appears before the raid begins.
The most important co-op detail is scaling. If a group has a level gap, Splatoon Raiders adjusts so one higher-level person doesn’t tear through everything alone. Co-op also uses shared attempts, with the group having six chances together instead of each person sitting on separate lives.
There are some helpful navigation tools, too. You can jump to the host to regroup, which should matter on larger maps or when someone gets distracted chasing resources. Blue beams point toward the next objective, and red crystal anomalies can change enemy behaviour or add extra goals for more resources.
Call for Help fills the gap when you’re playing alone. You can request temporary online assistance during a raid, but after finishing that raid, you need to wait before using it again. You can also answer another person’s request and earn in-game rewards. I like that balance. Splatoon Raiders still looks solo-first, but quick online backup is there when a raid starts getting out of hand.
Splatoon Raiders Is More Than A Deep Cut Side Story
At first, Splatoon Raiders looked like it might be a smaller Deep Cut side adventure, and honestly, I would have been fine with that. After the Direct and Treehouse gameplay, it looks more like Nintendo is giving this idea a lot more room to breathe.
The deeper Nintendo went, the more Splatoon Raiders started to separate itself from a normal Splatoon campaign. The tank choices, relic powers, Showstoppers, Spicy stage options and co-op scaling all feed into the same idea. Go out, take a risk, bring something back and make the next raid better.
That is what has me more interested now. Splatoon Raiders looks like it’s about experimenting with loadouts, taking a few greedy risks for better rewards and seeing just how far Deep Cut’s treasure hunt goes once the Spirhalite Islands open up.
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